John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does Ms Creedon think the Department of Public Expenditure listens? Does it act on it? We can presume it does not because it does not recognise this issue as being a problem. I ask Mr. Quigley to take note of this as an issue we will take up next week with him. We need a little more than words, or what some people might term "guff", from the Department. We need action and not guff.

I would like now to turn to an issue that has bothered the committee on and off in the context of different Departments, namely, the creation of leases by a Department in respect of decisions to lease properties which it owns. In this case, is it always the Chief State Solicitor's office that draws up or examines the lease or is it, again, the case that the Department can engage a private solicitors' firm to do the work for them? I am speaking in this regard about large property leases rather than minor ones.